Allergies
by VioletDragonian
Summary: Fox's performance in school drops drastically when he finds himself suffering from terrible allergies, but can't find what's causing them, and Velvet seems to know more than she's telling. Meanwhile, the blind student realizes he doesn't know what his partner looks like and asks a bold question. (Part 2 of a series of Coco/Fox short fics) (also hinted Velvet/Yatsuhashi)


**A/N: I don't have animal allergies so don't mind me if this is highly inaccurate.**

**As a side note, I'll keep writing Coco/Fox fics as long as I have prompts or ideas, so if anyone has suggestions for a fic of these two (or team CFVY as a whole) that they'd like to see, just say so and I'll see about adding it to my prompt list if I like it.**

**Edit: Oh my god FFN would you please stop deleting my formatting I've had to edit the coding of this fic four different times since posting it.**

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><p>Fox gave a tired sigh and fell back onto his bed. "I hate unpacking."<p>

"But now we're fully moved into our new dorm, so…" Velvet pointed out. "It's our home away from home."

Fox suddenly found himself being squished as Coco decided to flop onto him. "Hey Velvet look, I found a warm pillow."

"I'm not… a pillow…"

"You can be if you try hard enough."

"Coco, I don't think it's very nice to turn your partner into a pancake…"

"He's a pillow, not a pancake."

"He will be a pancake if you stay there."

"Are you saying I weigh enough to squish him?"

"Uh…"

"Never mind Fox, I think I found another pillow." The blind boy could _hear_ the smirk in Coco's voice as she got off him and leapt for Velvet, the room filling with squeals and giggles as the smaller girl tried to escape their leader. The girls ran around the edge of the room a couple of times, jumping over the beds no problem, and somehow that chase turned into a pillow fight that included throwing blankets at each other.

Fox ducked as he heard a pillow flying through the air toward his head, letting it sail right over him and hit someone else instead. Velvet's shout of "Sorry, Yatsuhashi!" told him exactly who had gotten attacked by the flying pillow.

Coco yelled something about Yatsuhashi making a good shield, but it was muffled by the heavy blanket that suddenly landed on Fox's head, covering him completely. He heard Coco give something akin to an apology while laughing, and he would have started laughing too if not for the sudden sneeze that surprised him, making him fall off the bed.

"… My partner literally just sneezed so hard he fell over." Coco sounded like she was unsure of whether to be dumbstruck or die laughing.

Sneezing again, Fox pulled the blanket off and set it aside. The room had fallen silent, and he was aware of his three teammates staring at him. He sneezed a few more times in quick succession before finally speaking. "Whose blanket is this?"

"It's mine." Velvet said.

"Do you have a pet rabbit at home?" Fox turned toward her, tilting his head slightly.

"No, why?"

"I'm allergic to rabbits."

* * *

><p>For the rest of the week, Fox noticed Velvet avoiding him. She still spoke to him the same as normal, but refused to sit right beside him in any of their classes and generally tried not to be too close to him. He still found his allergies acting up, and by the end of the week he had questioned every member of every single team that lived in neighboring dorms about a pet rabbit. And by the end of the week, he hadn't gotten anywhere in his search for the cause of his allergies.<p>

Over the weekend his allergies got worse, leaving him a sniffly mess by the time Monday rolled around. He had rolled out of bed with a groan, annoyed at the fact he had to spend yet another day being unable to breathe through his nose, and due to his blindness he wasn't able to see the guilty look Velvet had on her face most of the time now.

His first class that morning was Professor Port's, and the boastful professor made an annoyed sound more than once at the sniffles from the allergy-suffering teen that kept interrupting him. When it came time for the professor to ask for a volunteer to fight the Grimm he had caged in the classroom, he instead asked if Fox would like to try and clear up his stuffy head with some fighting practice.

And that's how Fox found himself here, standing in the middle of the classroom with an angry Boarbatusk preparing to charge him.

It attacked, and he did fine at first. He managed to hear or feel it coming and dodge, slashing its side as it went by. That repeated a few times until the creature figured out Fox's weakness, and started being quieter as it approached him, only to attack at the last second so the student didn't have time to move. Normally he still would have been able to hear it coming, but his allergies had left his head stuffy enough that his hearing felt duller than normal.

Finally, it became apparent the Grimm was the victor. It snuck up behind Fox and charged, hitting him with enough force to send the blind boy flying into a nearby wall, where he fell to the floor and did not get up.

The Boarbatusk approached Fox, most likely intending to finish him off, when a loud thud sounded from the middle of the desks and everyone present turned to the source of the noise. Coco stood on the desk in front of her usual seat, a menacing look on her face and one foot tapping angrily against the wood. A few of the students nearest to her shrank away, intimidated by the feeling of danger she was radiating.

Taking wide steps, team CFVY's leader walked down the rows of desks with her signature sassy stride. When she reached the last desk she jumped down to the floor and walked right up to the confused Grimm.

"You've just knocked out my partner. Prepare to get a concussion." Coco growled, then swung a leg around and kicked the creature hard enough to send it flying _through_ the wall, leaving a nice Boarbatusk-shaped hole in the side of the classroom. "Asshole."

She then picked up the unmoving Fox and turned to the rest of the class, all of whom had the same dumbstruck expressions with their mouths hanging open.

"I'm taking him to the infirmary. Bye."

No one tried to stop her as she strutted out of the classroom, Fox limply flung over her shoulder.

* * *

><p>Fox opened his eyes to darkness, as usual, and sat up with a groan. His head still felt stuffy and now he had aching muscles to go with it. "My everything hurts."<p>

"You okay there, Fox?"

He jumped, not expecting someone to talk to him since he thought the room was empty. Turning toward the source, he could almost _feel_ the annoyance radiating off his partner. "You seem kinda angry, Coco."

"Everyone else just sat back and let the damn Grimm pummel you." She hissed. "Everyone knows you're not in the best shape right now, yet you still got forced into a battle."

"The professor was just trying to help." Fox pointed out.

"He needs to learn better methods of helping, then."

Finding himself smiling at her concern for him, he changed the subject. "Aren't we missing other classes right now?"

"Professor Goodwitch caught me on the way here. After she saw you, she said we were both free from classes for today." Coco explained, the sound of her leaning back and stretching in her chair reached his ears.

"That was nice of her." He nodded, appreciating the break.

Coco made a sound of agreement, and the two fell into silence. Fox started to pick apart the sounds in the room, from the shifting of the bed sheets under him when he moved, to the ticking clock on the wall, to the comforting sound of Coco's breathing. _Come to think of it…_

"What's on your mind, Fox?" His partner's voice cut in suddenly, snapping him out of the runaway train of thought that had invaded his mind. He chuckled at how well she could read him. "It's something important if you've got that look on your face."

"Well, if you really want to know, I was thinking about you." He admitted, hearing her idle movements stop as she froze. "I mean, I realized that I don't know what you look like."

"Oh, that is true…" She seemed to be thinking about that fact, her words trailing off.

"Hey, Coco?"

"Yeah?"

"Will you let me see what you look like?" He asked, feeling bold.

"Uh…" She sounded confused. "How?"

"Come here."

Fox heard Coco stand and walk over to the bed, sitting down beside him. Reaching out, Fox searched for her hand, and after finding it, trailed his touch up her arm.

"What are you…?"

"Just tell me to stop if you feel uncomfortable."

Coco fell silent as Fox's hand moved over her shoulder and up her neck to finally reach her face. Now knowing where it was in relation to him, he reached his other hand out to touch the other side and effectively cup her face in his hands, feeling her curious gaze trained on him the entire time.

He moved one hand from her jaw to brush his fingers against her lips, the skin there pressing down slightly under his touch, and he marveled at how delicate she felt. Her soft skin seemed to balance out well with her sharp personality. Trailing his hand up to her cheek, his fingers brushed against something. "You wear glasses?" He asked, gently taking the frame and pulling the glasses off her face to set them aside.

"Shades, actually. I don't need real glasses."

Fox made a noise of acknowledgement to show he'd heard, and continued in his quest of mapping out her features. The pads of his fingers brushed gently across her cheeks and onto her nose, and he felt smooth flawless skin until his middle finger met the rougher feeling skin of a small scar. He ran his finger along it a couple of times, memorizing the placement of the old cut. "Close your eyes." He instructed, then moved both of his hands up to very gently feel over her eyelids, long lashes tickling his fingers as he did so.

"You're really gentle." Coco breathed, the air of it hitting Fox's face and making him realize how close they'd gotten.

Somewhere along the way Coco had moved into his lap, and was now leaning into his touch.

He didn't answer, moving his hands further out and back over her cheeks again to meet her ears. She tensed as he felt along the outer shell, and he paused. Seeming to notice his unspoken question, she explained.

"I just don't really like my ears being touched."

"Oh." Fox started to remove his hands, but she stopped him and kept them in place by grabbing his wrists.

"No, keep going. It's okay."

Nodding, he finished tracing the edge of her ears and briefly felt the lobe before returning to her cheeks. "You've never pierced your ears."

"Never liked the idea."

Fox hummed in reply, finding it slightly amusing that the most fashion-oriented person he knew was against getting her ears pierced. He went back to his previous task and traced his fingers along the edge of her face, just barely brushing against her hairline as he moved upward.

She flinched when he touched her temple, and he froze.

"… Sorry." They both said at the same time, each surprising the other.

"Should I stop?" Fox asked, ready to remove his hands again.

"No, it's just a bruise. I was too slow to dodge one of the other teams' members while sparring yesterday." Coco explained. "It's just still a little tender."

"Hmm… Let me try something." Fox said, removing his hand from the bruise and reaching down to the pouches on his belt, opening one and dipping his thumb into the ice Dust stored inside. He closed the pouch and brought his hand back up to Coco's face, then used his Aura to activate the powerful substance, making it icy cold against his skin. As gently as he could, Fox set his thumb against the bruise and rubbed over it lightly with the Dust, earning him a pleased sigh.

"That feels really nice."

A small smile spread across his own face at her words, and after removing his hand to shake the remaining Dust off, he moved on to run his fingers along her thin eyebrows, noting they were well groomed. That fact made him suddenly imagine Coco standing at a mirror making funny expressions while grooming them, and he couldn't help chuckling at the mental image. He felt one of her eyebrows move under his touch as she raised it in a puzzled look, but she didn't question him about what he'd found funny.

After that he moved his hands over her forehead, feeling more flawless skin there, then finally threaded his fingers into her hair. It was soft and free of tangles as he brushed through it, though he paused when his fingers met some type of fabric and he reached up to inspect it. "I didn't know you wore hats." He said, then pulled the beret off her head to set it with the shades.

Returning to her hair, he brushed his fingers through one side of her bangs, which were long and came down just under her ear to frame her face. The other side of her bangs was longer, and Fox gently felt along it until it ended in a tight curl. He found himself doing that a couple more times, fond of the way her hair moved with his touch. "I like your hair."

Had his hands still been on her cheeks, he would have been able to feel the heat that rose to them from that, but her blush went unnoticed by the blind boy.

Letting go of her bangs, Fox brought his hands back down to her neck again, moving to thread his fingers through the back of her hair. It was shorter than her bangs, but he liked the way the shorter locks fell from his touch as he moved through them. The tips of his fingers were gently rubbing against her head as he brushed through her hair, and Coco kept making contented sounds at the feeling.

After a few moments of petting through her hair, Fox's fingers brushed against a sensitive spot near the back of her head, making his partner gasp and press her face against his neck. He blinked in surprise at the odd reaction, but he could feel the heat that had risen to her cheeks again from where her face was pressed into his neck and she had reacted differently when something hurt or bothered her before, making him realize the spot he'd brushed against had not caused her pain or discomfort. With a smirk, Fox gently rubbed against the spot in her hair again, and Coco made a strained noise and shivered.

"That spot is kinda sensitive, Fox…" Coco said, voice trembling slightly.

"I can tell." Fox was unable to keep the smirk out of his own voice.

"Bastard… Stop teasing." She hissed, leaning back enough to shoot him a challenging look though he couldn't see it.

"Hmmm… No." He practically purred, rubbing that spot again.

"Fox…!" Coco whined, making a loud keening noise, and burying her face in his neck again. Fox could feel her whole body trembling against him, and was tempted to do it again when another voice reached his ears and made them both freeze.

"Are you two always going to be getting it on when I come in here?" Velvet sounded slightly amused and completely unsurprised.

"Oh my god Velvet would you PLEASE LEARN TO KNOCK." Coco shouted, thoroughly frustrated, and Fox snorted in amusement.

"Classes have been over for a while now." Velvet continued, still sounding amused and completely skipping over Coco's annoyed outburst. "Anyway, I cleaned our entire dorm from floor to ceiling, and I wanted to see if maybe that would help Fox's allergies."

"Thanks Velvet, we'll be right over." Fox nodded to her, and their teammate left, a strange crinkling noise filling the air as she moved. He gave a confused stare toward the door for a moment after she left, wondering what that was.

Fox turned back to Coco, only to sense her face barely an inch away from his and froze. He could feel her intense stare boring into him, and she leaned even closer, her breath ghosting over his lips and just barely brushed hers against them. "I'll get you back for this."

And then she was gone, standing up and fixing her hair before putting her beret and shades back in their proper places on her person. Fox just stared in her general direction, slightly dazed, and he was absolutely positive she smirked.

"Come on, Foxy boy. You promised Velvet we'd go see if her cleaning fixed your allergies, so let's go." Coco said, the tone of amusement in her voice making him know he was right about her smirking. Fox stood and followed her out of the room, his thoughts wandering as they went. He had to admit, despite the drastic turn of events, he had learned a lot about his partner and was glad he now had a clearer mental image of what she looked like.

"You sure do make some pretty cute sounds when you're-" Fox was interrupted by her fist meeting his shoulder and knocking him over. "… I regret nothing."

* * *

><p>Returning to their dorm a few minutes later, the first thing Fox noticed was the strong smell of multiple different types of cleaning products. A slight breeze in the room told him the window was also open, probably an attempt to air out the lingering scent of chemicals.<p>

"Wow, this place is sparkling. Literally. Velvet, you did all this?" Coco spoke from where she stood beside Fox.

"Well, yes." Their other teammate said quietly. "I hoped maybe it would get rid of the, uh… _phantom bunny_ that's been bringing Fox down."

Moving further into the room, the two sat down on one of the beds, and Velvet sat down across from them on another bed. Fox smelled the air again, noticing that doing so didn't make him sneeze like it had for most of the week. "Well, I'm not noticing anything. Looks like that worked, Velvet."

"Yay!" There was that crinkling noise again, and Fox let a puzzled look cross his face at the sound. _Is she carrying something plastic?_ "So you'll start to feel better now?"

"Yeah, probably."

The sound of the door opening again signaled the return of their last teammate, and the added smell of water along with the absent sound of Yatsuhashi's armor clinking against itself made it obvious to Fox that he'd just returned from the showers. Velvet's partner came over and joined them, sitting down on the bed beside Velvet, and the crinkling noise sounded multiple times before Velvet gave an annoyed huff and the sound stopped.

Coco started laughing. "Fox, you look so confused."

A knock at the door sounded briefly before it was opened. Team CFVY turned to the newcomer, the smell of spiked coffee telling Fox exactly who it was. "Professor Oobleck." He greeted.

"Sharp as ever I see, Fox." The professor said, always impressed with how Fox could tell who someone was before they spoke if he knew them. Judging by the way his voice seemed to move slightly as he spoke next, the blind boy guessed he was looking around. "But, I must ask. Did you four murder someone in here?"

"Ehh?" Velvet squeaked in surprise. "What even…?"

The hyperactive professor chuckled, drinking his coffee. "People usually go on extreme cleaning sprees when they commit murder to remove the evidence."

Velvet stuttered, trying to explain that they hadn't done anything like that, while Coco roared with laughter at the situation and fell off the bed. Fox found himself laughing slightly along with his partner, and Velvet's partner made a simple "Heh. Heheh." sound, and the crinkling reached Fox's ears again for a moment.

"Don't worry, I know you're all innocent." Oobleck reassured, sounding highly amused by the small girl's panic. "But really, what is with all the cleaning? We can smell the chemicals from the courtyard and all throughout the dorms."

"Fox has allergies." Yatsuhashi explained, and Velvet added onto it.

"I was trying to see if I could make them go away because they're affecting his performance and making him miserable."

"How has it affected him?"

"I got pummeled by a Boarbatusk in Professor Port's class earlier." The blind student said.

"Oh, so that's where the hole in the wall came from…" The professor trailed off.

"Eh?" Fox turned to Coco. "What hole in the wall?"

"I had absolutely nothing to do with that." Came the deadpan reply from the floor. "… Probably."

"So Fox, what is it you're allergic to?" Oobleck asked curiously, and Fox remembered the professor hadn't known about his allergies before, too busy flitting around the classroom fueled by caffeine during his classes to notice the student's miserable state.

"Rabbits." He replied, and heard the teacher pause mid-drink.

"Say what now? But you live with a-"

"Oh look at the time professor I bet you have lots of work you need to do so you should probably go do that like right now." Velvet said all in one breath, hopping up and pushing the confused professor out the door. "Thanks for stopping by we'll see you tomorrow good luck with your work."

And then the door slammed shut, their small teammate leaning against it.

"… What just happened?" Fox asked, thoroughly confused.

"I believe Velvet just evicted one of our teachers." Coco explained, sounding like she wasn't sure how to react.

Velvet just gave a nervous chuckle, returning to sit beside her partner. Fox just shook his head when the crinkling sound came back.

* * *

><p>Fox sat up in bed. It was late, probably sometime well after midnight, and he listened to the quiet dorm in an attempt to find what had woken him. Someone shifted in their bed, and he heard the crinkling noise again.<p>

"Is everyone else asleep?" He asked, loudly enough for anyone awake to hear him.

"Nope." Yatsuhashi.

"I'm not." Velvet.

"I don't think any of us can sleep." Coco.

His whole team was up.

"Why are the rest of you awake?"

"I can't get comfortable." Velvet mumbled.

"It's noisy." Coco growled. Yatsuhashi made a sound in agreement.

"Sorry." That was Velvet again. Fox narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"Okaaay…" He said, standing. "Well, we're not going to get anywhere like this. Anyone up for a midnight snack?"

"It's two a.m. Fox." Coco remarked.

"Two a.m. ice cream it is."

A few minutes later, the blind boy had successfully dragged his teammates from their beds, team CFVY then making their way to the dining hall. It was kind of eerie walking the quiet halls of Beacon after dark, feeling oddly deserted, but Fox didn't really care.

Once they reached the kitchens attached to the dining hall, Coco searched the freezer and came back with chocolate ice cream. Fox hopped up to sit on the counter after his partner handed him a bowl, the rest of his team finding barstools to sit on while they ate their ice cream. "You know what we should do tomorrow?"

"What?" Coco asked, curiously turning to her partner.

"After classes we should head to Vale and do something fun." He decided, nodding in agreement with himself.

"Like what?" That was Yatsuhashi.

"Well, we can head to that burger place Coco likes so much. And Velvet, weren't you wanting to see a movie?"

"Yeah, the only theater showing it is way on the other side of town though, and it's a long movie." The small girl pointed out, sounding disappointed.

Fox set his empty bowl in the sink beside him. "So? Let's go see it anyway."

"Really?" Velvet squeaked, a tone of excitement entering her voice.

"Well, as long as Coco agrees. She is our leader."

"Fine by me."

"Yay!" Velvet cheered, and Coco made a surprised sound as the girl probably hugged her. The crinkling sounded again, and Fox listened closely at where it came from.

His small teammate hugged him next, and he smirked, reaching up to rest a hand on the top of her head. Velvet froze. Nestled in her hair was something wrapped in plastic, and Fox found the edge of the plastic, starting to gently pull it off. Once the plastic was removed, he could feel soft fur under his hands.

"I knew it." He said, his voice betraying his slight amusement and sense of victory at finally solving the mystery of the 'phantom bunny'. "You know, you didn't have to hide the fact you're a Faunus from me."

"Well… I didn't know how you'd react, especially since you're allergic to me and…" Velvet trailed off, then her voice came back louder than before. "Wait! Stop touching my ears, you'll make your allergies come back again!"

"That's okay." Fox shrugged, continuing to gently pet the soft fur. "The thing about allergies is that once you know what's causing them, you can either build an immunity and stop being allergic to it or at the very least, get a medication for it."

"Well I know that, but…"

"So you don't have to cover your ears in plastic just to keep them from setting me off." He finished saying, then started on another thought. "And did you really expect the blind kid to dislike you for being a Faunus?"

"… Kind of?" Velvet sounded like she regretted assuming things now.

"That's okay too. You never know who will be nice about something like that or not, but I don't care, so you don't have to worry about it." Fox then turned to their other two teammates. "But it was kind of annoying that literally everyone in the entire school knows Velvet is a Faunus and the only person who came close to actually telling me was Oobleck."

"She asked everyone not to." Yatsuhashi explained.

"Our favorite little bunny was afraid of how you'd react, yeah." Coco agreed. "Besides, other than you almost dying in class, the whole thing has been hilarious."

Letting go of Velvet's ears, Fox jumped back down to the floor. "Either way, it's all fine now. My allergies will be fine after awhile, and Velvet doesn't have to wear plastic on her ears. Let's go back to bed."

"I won't argue with that."

* * *

><p><span><strong>Bonus scene<strong>

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><p>Ozpin and Glynda stared as Velvet shoved her much taller and half-dressed partner down the hall, a towel resting on his shoulder. As the two students passed by, completely missing the extremely confused professors watching them, they noticed the Faunus' bunny ears wrapped in plastic.<p>

"Yatsuhashi go! Go shower! You're probably covered in rabbit hair from petting me!"

He just grinned and kept not moving, forcing the small bunny girl to continue shoving him down the hallway.

"You're going to shower whether you want to or not. And stop patting my head, Fox is going to notice the plastic!"

The two students vanished around a corner, and Glynda turned to Ozpin with a sharp look.

"Don't you even dare."

Ozpin sipped his coffee. "I ship that too."

"OZPIN!"


End file.
